KUWAIT CITY, 4 June 2006 — National carrier Kuwait Airways Corp. (KAC) posted $82.2 million in losses in the fiscal year 2005/2006 that ended on March 31, mainly due to high fuel prices, its chairman said on Friday.
Revenues for the state-owned airways reached $868 million, up from the previous year’s $760 million, Sheikh Talal Mubarak Al-Sabah told the official KUNA news agency. Expenditures rose to $950.2 million in 2005 2006 from $897 million the previous year, due to high fuel prices and increased maintenance costs, he said. Sheikh Talal said the airline paid about $81 million extra for fuel in the past fiscal year, almost equal to its losses. KAC has spent 15 of the past 16 years in the red and accumulated losses to the tone of $1.8 billion in the 11 fiscal years to 2003 2004.
Losses are covered by the state.
Last year, the government paid $790 million to the carrier which represented KAC’s losses for seven fiscal years. The amount had been held back by MPs over allegations of mismanagement. The amount represented about 66 percent of the carrier’s capital of 1.2 billion.
